The Eerie

From Simen Johan’s “Until the Kingdom Comes,” a fantasy world of animals dropped into unfamiliar settings, where the humans appear to have expired.

The Eerie

Interview by Rosecrans Baldwin

TMN: Describe for us how this series began in your mind.

Simen Johan: This work evolved over time as I experimented with different things. I never have a clear conception of an image or sculpture before I begin, but the final pieces I develop inevitably become decisive expressions of how I experience the world around me. The work echoes my curiosity about life—about our desires, fears, and darkest intuitions, and about consciousness as a whole, which might be the most familiar and mysterious aspect of our lives. Continue reading


“Until the Kingdom Comes” will be on display at Yossi Milo Gallery in New York, Nov. 3–Dec. 23, 2011. All images © Simen Johan, Courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York.

Simen Johan
Untitled #152, 2008
From the series Until the Kingdom Comes
Digital C-print
© Simen Johan, Courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York
Simen Johan Untitled #152, 2008 From the series Until the Kingdom Comes Digital C-print © Simen Johan, Courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York
Simen Johan
Untitled #154, 2009
From the series Until the Kingdom Comes
Digital C-print
© Simen Johan, Courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York
Simen Johan Untitled #154, 2009 From the series Until the Kingdom Comes Digital C-print © Simen Johan, Courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York
Simen Johan
Untitled #132, 2005
From the series Until the Kingdom Comes
Digital C-print
© Simen Johan, Courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York
Simen Johan Untitled #132, 2005 From the series Until the Kingdom Comes Digital C-print © Simen Johan, Courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York
Simen Johan
Untitled #153, 2008
From the series Until the Kingdom Comes
Digital C-print
© Simen Johan, Courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York
Simen Johan Untitled #153, 2008 From the series Until the Kingdom Comes Digital C-print © Simen Johan, Courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York
Simen Johan
Untitled #159, 2010
From the series Until the Kingdom Comes
Digital C-print
© Simen Johan, Courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York
Simen Johan Untitled #159, 2010 From the series Until the Kingdom Comes Digital C-print © Simen Johan, Courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York
Simen Johan
Untitled #136, 2006
From the series Until the Kingdom Comes
Digital C-print
© Simen Johan, Courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York
Simen Johan Untitled #136, 2006 From the series Until the Kingdom Comes Digital C-print © Simen Johan, Courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York
Simen Johan
Untitled #156, 2009
From the series Until the Kingdom Comes
Digital C-print
© Simen Johan, Courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York
Simen Johan Untitled #156, 2009 From the series Until the Kingdom Comes Digital C-print © Simen Johan, Courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York
Simen Johan
Untitled #133, 2005
From the series Until the Kingdom Comes
Digital C-print
© Simen Johan, Courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York
Simen Johan Untitled #133, 2005 From the series Until the Kingdom Comes Digital C-print © Simen Johan, Courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York

Interview continued

TMN: How does a photograph come together?

SJ: I photograph animals that live in zoos, farms, or nature preserves, or sometimes that have been taxidermied in museum dioramas, or found as road kill. I then situate them in settings that I have constructed from images I’ve photographed elsewhere.

TMN: Are you depicting a dystopian world? A post-human world?

SJ: Some images have a post-apocalyptic vibe to them, but it’s all open to interpretation. I like to evoke the future as uncertain—one that we dream will bring eternal bliss, yet fear will end in annihilation.

TMN: Going back to “Evidence of Things Unseen,” there’s often a lot of beauty living alongside brutality in your work. Is the world a terrifying place?

SJ: Our thoughts can be terrifying, but the world is evidently a friendly one or else it wouldn’t cater so well to our survival.

When working on an image, I strive to create tension and confuse the boundaries between opposing forces, such as beauty and brutality as you say, or the familiar and the otherworldly, the natural and the artificial, the amusing and the eerie. I often feel like I am attempting to reconcile the irreconcilable as I explore the paradoxical nature of existence, its simultaneous abundance of beauty and horror.

TMN: Do you find yourself motivated artistically by political events?

SJ: Not particularly. Politics is largely culture and time-specific and I’m interested in the things that are universal and inherent.

TMN: What are you working on now?

SJ: I’m always working on many things, and I’m never sure what they will turn into until they’re done.